It’s Autumn, and while we’d normally have been in our woolies for weeks now, we’re still able to get away without. For knitters this is a great time to whip up a quick hat or pair of gloves – but have you ever considered geological knitting?

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As part of the Spirit of Portland the Sculpture Hut was open to visitors with Stonechat providing a painting opportunity. Only a small task – to paint Portland Bill. In order to aid the process, and to inspire artists young an old, a basic outline of earth, sea, sky and key features (huts and lighthouse) was provided on a large sheet of heavy duty paper (re-cycled from my art course)

OS Painting the Bill – the studio is ready

OS the not quite blank canvas

We had some very enthusiastic young British artists arrive who got stuck in to painting the sea

First enthusiastic young artists

Other feartures added

The other features included the Lobster Pot cafe, lots of grass and a few more huts ……some of which were on fire (due to excess of red paint)!

Then along came a couple of willing adults who built up some deatails

Mermaid ahoy

Besides a mermaid Mary added a very effective NE wind! Then a large sea creature appeared, maybe a jellyfish or possibly an octopus appeared, although we’re not sure who the adult artist was.

Surfing the shoreline

With the help of three more YBAs late in the afternoon the picture was almost done

Another pretty blue hut added

Adding another boat and working hard at growing grass

And so by close of studio we have a magnificent wall painting – there’s still room for more detail to be added in the months to come

Making yet another cushion in order to try out a pattern – well you can never have enough… can you?

I always have to have an easy project on the go to pick up in any odd moment and this 20 x 20inch cushion cover is my latest easy project.

The pattern can be found on Ravelry as a free pattern by Red Heart, and if you log into Ravelry you can see 916 projects made form this pattern. I’m not surprised it is so popular, reasons for loving this pattern:

And there in the garden is my favourite combination of pinks and oranges, with parsley seed heads adding some lime green – yummy.

The children are particularly intrigued that a bush can have all these different coloured flowers on it – and so am I – and it goes so well with the 80’s curtain fabric in the spare bedroom – love those kind of happy accidents

ok back to work …..

Later addition:

After a trying day it was truly blissful to sit till past 10pm on the bench building the rows of crochet, listening to birdsong amidst the scent of night-scented stocks and watching delicate little white moths flit about – sooooooo soooooooooothing.

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There is always a mini feeling of sadness when a big project is coming to an end, like when you arrive at the last chapter in a great novel and you don’t want to leave the world of the characters and the story.

I started this throw back in April, and if you are interested in the yarn and colours, click here and you can see the list I ordered. However I did not use the ‘raspberry’ in the end.

Has it worked? Well, I’m not sure it has – the zig-zags are maybe too bold … perhaps a more regular and repeating pattern would have worked better with single rows of each colour.

I have so enjoyed the ‘journey’ of it though. It holds many happy memories. It has led to making cushion covers for 3 grandchildren and they have been able to choose their own colours. And Miss E who painted this picture when she was 4 (at her house, so not in sight of the painting)

as the sort of picture that Granny likes, was able to play with colour. Teddy chose this combination for her next dress!

And here is the throw, or snuggle blanket …. finished (?). I crocheted a row of single crochet along the side edge in pale turquoise.

When a creative piece is not entirely a success I like to remember that “it is not wrong, it is just not finished”. A great quote – wish I could remember where I found it.

So I will live with the Throw and enjoy it and probably try out another design for another cushion cover. And maybe make a second blanket that will harmonise in a more pleasing way. I do like it, but not LOVE it, so no big Ta Dah! on this one – work in progress.

The look of the Tote Bags and the Cushions (Throw Pillows) make me squeeeeeak with joy!

I have ordered a Tote Bag for myself, to check out the quality and to see how much I will have to pay on top of the postage once it gets to this country. I was going to wait for the bag to arrive before blogging about it but it’s hopeless, I just can not wait!

The fabric is printed with a high definition photograph and I am really interested to see if they look as great in reality as they do online.

I have searched in vain for a UK or European site which does the same thing – the prices and postage are reasonable on the US site I think – just waiting to see what charges are made once in the UK.

Loving the idea of having a crocheted cushion sitting next to it’s photographed counterpart, and maybe a clock to match in the kitchen – or is that going too far?

Could always go for a slightly different pattern in the same colour way

Having lots of fun thinking about different combos. . . .

and different sizes and scale, and then there are the rugs

and the mugs

I’ve got masses of ideas prancing around in my mind for more and more things I want to photograph. PLUS ideas of things I want to make in order to photograph them and see them turned into bags and cushions .. so please pop into the shop and have a look around – I’d love to know what you like best – more to come very soon.

After two days immersed in digging and delving in my garden, my body aches and creaks and groans, but what joy at the end of the day to peer deep into these gorgeous flowers and imagine……. I just want to dive in and live in them

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mmmmmmmmarigold

entrance to the fairies’ night club – there’s nature’s strobe lighting going on in there …

opium poppy ball-gown

silk taffeta skirt

– come prance with me amongst the petals before curling up in a tussle of taffeta and dream of sunny tomorrows

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On Monday a friend and I went off to meander around West Dorset and take in some ozone packed Art on display through Dorset Arts Weeks .

We drove to Abbotsbury and visited Dansel Wood Gallery. We had met there when we both worked in the Gallery 20 years ago. The view above was on my journey to work each morning and it never failed to give me a gasp of pleasure, and I thought I must have one of the best commutes in the world! (the ferry across Sydney Harbour Australia possibly just beats it!).

I can highly recommend the coffee shop at Dansel too – giving time for a catch-up chat with our former boss, and to do a spot of crochet

I took the beginnings of the throw on the train when I went to stay with my son and his family in London, setting off from our little country station

Started the night before just to set the pattern, I managed to do nearly a row whilst waiting for the train and had done this much by the time we got to Bournemouth

We had a delightful and very camp ticket inspector who gasped with joy when he saw my ripples! And held it up declaring

“Look what she’s doing isn’t it FAAABulous, LOOK it goes up and down as well!”

Very unusual on an English train!!! The usual reserve broken and little slightly self-conscious smiles and nods all round.

People often ask me how long it takes to make things, which I find hard to answer because I do it for relaxation and in between other things and whilst watching children play or in front of the TV – so how long it takes is irrelevant to me – but to answer the question, I timed a row of the throw – it took about 11 mins.

But a better answer would be to say, how long does it take you to read a book.

Later I was on the long tube journey to the outer reaches of London and a burly bloke says in a cockney accent – “Gor blimey, slow down , you’re makin me dizzy” as I thundered on seeing how much I could do on the journey.

I love the way doing crafts in public often gives the go ahead for conversation.

And now I am home again here is the throw so far

I’m loving doing it and the way the picture is guiding the colour sequence – not sure it actually works and I can already see how I would like to have done it differently – but that is the creative mind – never completely satisfied – always thinking of the next project.

I think I would have preferred to do it in this sequence with 4 single rows every so often

I briefly contemplated unpicking the throw, but it is not only the time and work invested in the piece – but also the happy memories as it’s made – I can always do another one!

You make 10 postcards, Hanna gives you 10 addresses from around the world and then, when she fires the starting pistol, you send them off and await for 10 wonderful works of art to glide through your letter box. It’s magic!

I have used one of the collages done at the beach hut for mine this Spring Swap. You can see the start of it by clicking here. Gosh, that is about a year ago!

A large piece of card, approx A1 size, gathered from the Dorset Scrapstore, gets covered with a fairly random assortment of pictures in a chosen colour theme – this time, yellow for Spring!

Then I paint over it, and machine stitch (inspired by Tammy at Daisy Yellow – see link on the blogroll on the right).

I love the way the stitching looks on the reverse side

Greta, a recipient of one of the cards called this ‘sewed on gold’ – LOVE that!! Thank you Greta.

Then cut them into post card sizes

And add an edging

in this case a leaf design on sellotape

Ta dah!

And off they go!

You can see links to other participants posts here – what a beautiful bountiful bunch of inspiration!

Have been wanting to start a new big crochet project and inspired by Lucy at Attic 24 who has put together a palette of colours on the Wool Warehouse and Deramores websites, I wanted to have a go at putting my own palette together.

I’m not even sure that’s how to say it, and I can never remember it, but it is a grand name.

With the white narcissi underneath, my garden seems to have a bridal feel to it at the moment.

I wonder what other delicate white flowers I could grow to flower at this time of year, any ideas?

I like the way the cerise cyclamen and bright pink and purple hyacinths of March gave way to this froth of white in April. It will change again into the pinks, oranges and blues of the summer planting. Totally unplanned, but I like it! Serendipity – yes!!!

Post script: I went for a walk round the village this evening, to look for other white flowers in bloom and came across some white muscari and white myosotis – they will join the bridal theme next year. Loving the theatre of it. I have never thought of playing with colour in the garden in this way before. Fun!

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With stacks of black plastic pots stored in the garage, I was looking on Pinterest for ways of using them and came across living walls.

DIY is not my thing, or I would have made 3 or 5 shelves to go on an outside wall and arranged the pots on them, tilting them at a n angle and putting the largest ones in the middle, grading them down to the smaller ones at the ends.

But I do have some redundant fixings in a south facing wall.

Where an tired old rose had been.

Until my newly planted fig trees grow, the wall is bare and so …..

I wired the pots together with plastic-coated green wire, putting a stick at the base (painted pink) of the largest pot, and threading through one of the drainage holes.

To reduce the weight in the large pot, I turned a small plastic pot upside down, before adding the compost.

then a second wire starting under the next pot and threading the 2 wires through all the pots all the way to the top.

The wires are twisted round the supports on the way up to prevent wind rock and to help spread the weight.

Ideally I’d the two rows to be hanging closer together, and have more of them, but that is where the supports are, and it does give me satisfaction to use what I’ve got and not take too long putting things together.

I couldn’t resist a bit of doodling!

And once I’d started ..

I just kept going!

and one of my favourite sayings, especially directed at all those drivers who feel they need to beep at me ….

I have planted some succulents in the top pots and alpine strawberries, that freely seed themselves around the garden, in some of the others.

Later, after the risk of frost has gone, I’ll plant more ordinary strawberry plants in the larger, lower pots, and maybe some thyme.

This is an experiment – I don’t know if it will work but I will keep you posted.

After a taxing week I was SO looking forward to Saturday’s Felt Making Workshop led by, local artist, Di Pattinson.

There is something soothing and wonderful about a group of women crafting together, and every so often I just have to book a day for myself to have a go at a new textile related skill.

I first came across Di’s work some years ago during Dorset Arts Weeks, an almost overwhelming richness of Dorset Art on show for 2 weeks every 2 years. (It is about to happen again soon, in May, click on link above to go to the website)

Di has a very upbeat and encouraging, relaxed style of demonstrating and supporting her students, so that one does not feel pressured to achieve, anything goes and she has a mass of materials to choose from

ooooo, don’t you just want to go elbow-deep into all that wonderful merino colourful softness

Here I am aged 15 (ha!) the colours of the photo have faded a bit – but that dress was BRIGHT!!

note the Dr Scholl sandals – remember those?

I had a brief foray into terracotta and subtle greens in the 80s, but it did not last long.

Back to the felt – We started with a flat piece and I just threw it all together very quickly as I did not really want to think too much or have any finished object in mind – the day, for me, was about pure relaxation. Very much a Process Art approach, be drawn by a colour and go with where it takes you, and this meant I could dash off another piece before we stopped for lunch.

If ‘dash off’ can really describe the 400 rolls, back and forth, you need to do to get the wool fibres to felt together.

Others went for more subtle colouring (mine on the left) and produced some beautiful and fun pieces, which were left to dry on the radiator – some were destined for needle felting and/or other embellishments later.

I was bowled over by this piece inspired by a greetings card

After lunch Di told us how to make vessels, whether for vases, bags or bowls

Here are couple she has decorated with pebblesWe were all amazed at the variety of colours and shapes we produced

I was still going for ..

adding tassels of knitting yarn to decorate

to create a little shoulder bag

I really found it hard to believe that I was able to create 3 pieces in 6 hours with a stop for lunch, as well as being shown several other techniques

Here is my Ta Dah! moment.

I’m not sure what I will do with the flat pieces but no doubt embroidery and beads will be used. The first piece with circles I think I will cut into strips and machine embroider into a collage.

And the second – well I really like this one as it is – I might add a few beads and some simple embroidery but I’m pretty sure this one will go on the wall

Now, I wonder whether it would it sit comfortably next to Summer Flight

The sun is out and I’m wanting to wear bright colours and have them all around me!

it was iHanna who inspired me to wear turquoise nail varnish, and then I found all these other gorgeous colours too – yummy! Loving the combination of turquoise, orange and acid green.

The clothes above are floral print trousers from Landsend (last year), a Boden orange cardigan (a few years ago) and a T-shirt from, I can’t remember where. With bright pink shoes they all put a Spriiiiiiinnnnnnnggg in my step 🙂

And these needlepoint daffodil squares are just the colours I want around me at the moment:

I created the pattern and these 16′ squares about 10 years ago, and they have been sitting in a roll waiting for me to do something with them. Crazy! Should they be framed as pictures or used as cushion covers – I know I am bad at making decisions but this is ridiculous!

AND I would like to be able to sell the charts for them – now where have I stored those things …

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I planted some gifted rhubarb plants, autumn fruiting raspberry canes, and managed to finish planting the snowdrops (over 200 altogether!). The neighbours were out in their garden too – chatting over the fence whilst both pottering in the sunshine is precious after a long winter of snatched hellos whilst dodging the wind and rain. And they kindly gave me some of their naturalised anemone blanda to put amongst the snowdrops.

I keep going back out and looking at all that potential for gorgeousness and imagining how this will look next Spring and even better the next when they bulk up a bit – ooooo! Exciting!

This seems to be turning into a blue and white themed border – I’m wondering what can go in there to continue this colour theme throughout the year.

Here were the crocuses the day before, bravely adding colour on a cold dull day

(They are in a pot, planted under a eucalyptus tree and have been joined by some self seeded flat leaf parsley)

and then the sun came out!

they seem to shout Hurray!!!!a feast of purple with those bright spikes of yellow and orange – fabulous.

I rarely get up before doing a bit of knitting or crochet, with my first cuppa of the day – green tea.

Charged phone, lap top, and camera ready to go to a meeting at work (this is some work I do with groups of children) and set off for the weekly market in my local town to buy snowdrops ‘in the green’, and some wonderful local produce.

I bought 20 little bunches of snowdrops from a local grower

and he kindly threw in a few extra and some advice to plant them at least 5″ deep to prevent them from being dug up by mice and squirrels for a tasty snack.

And then to work – I was a bit earlier than I needed to be so I sat in the car listening to ’12 Years a Slave’ on BBC Radio 4. and carrying on with some knitting – I was so engrossed in both that I was nearly late for my meeting – oops!

I’ve come up with this kinda wavy pattern for the Flick Wig – it’s probably a well known pattern, but it pleases me because it is a cable that does not need a cable needle,

and it gives the wig a bit of texture and creates a snugger fit, which is especially important for chemo caps/hats/wigs.

A very productive meeting at work, and then back home to plant snowdrops in the sunshine

I am planting them in front of my new espalier pear trees – Concorde, Conference, Clapps Favourite and Baronne de Mello which I got from Thornhayes Nursery in Devon. They were planted in early December.

And in front of the snowdrops will be a mass of forget-me-knots, from the seeds I was given last year and grew in my fabulous Veg Trugs

The heart is made of poppy seedlings, the ‘kisses’ are black cornflowers, and the sprinkling around the edge is the forget-me-knots.

I love how the shapes grew

I planted the snowdrops with a little of my own home made compost to give them a good start – you can see the amazing whizzo black rotary compost maker in the background

There is very little that gives me more pleasure than using my own compost! It ticks so many boxes for me – using up waste (the hoarder in me LOVES this!), environmentally fabulous, creative, and just so magical how kitchen waste can turn into rich earth so quickly to give my food and flower plants such a good start. Heavenly bliss!!! My children roll their eyes at my glee and delight!!!

And now the sun is going down so it’s back inside for a currant bun, vanilla chai and a cosy log fire – and more knitting of course!

In emails from home I knew my daughter was having a challenging time with her amazingly creative, energetic, frolicsome, imaginative, demanding, mischievous trio of joyful delight! At 6, 4 and 19mths, her children are delightful, and juggling the needs of the whole family can be exhausting!!!!

It was hard to be so far away and know how much she could have done with a helping hand. So I sent her this picture of the sea sprite to dance into her day and hopefully give her a boost of sunny playful energy……..

along with a little visualisation/meditation – so if anyone is feeling a bit lack lustre, or is feeling at the effect of the grim weather we have been having on both sides of the Atlantic – she is happy for me to share her visualisation just in case it helps:

Close your eyes, deep breath, I am sending you a dose of warm and healing sunshine.
Can you feel it all through every cell of your body, down to your tippy toes and tingling in your finger tips.
Add a hug of jacuzzi bubbles softening to the sound of gently lapping waves on white sands, with sparkles of joy and warm oceans of love ………….

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A couple of years ago, I was hopping around the internet looking for knitting inspiration when I saw a picture of a knitted wig. I couldn’t find a pattern for it so I made one up myself. To get the pattern right I had knitted several wigs.

which we had fun with at Stonechat – but what to do with them – so i put them in my Etsy shop.

I had no idea what a wonderful journey this would take me on. The first to sell was the Daisy Wig, which was bought by a woman in America for her friend who was going through chemo and I was told “she absolutely went nuts for it!”

And since then I have had such heartwarming messages from people who have bought a wig and say it has cheered up an otherwise grim time for them and their families – other members of the family wanting to wear the wigs too!

And of course they still come in handy for fancy dress parties

This is my lovely daughter-in-law modelling the multi-coloured clown style wig, getting ready to go to a ‘Bright and Tight’ Fancy Dress party.

I have also been asked to make some patterns using double knit rather than chunky yarn

and I have come up with these bob-styles.

It has taken several attempts to get the shape right – and now to get the pattern perfect for others to follow …….

So that is what I was working on whilst putting my feet up in the Middle East

swapping our little .beach hut studio at dear old wind-battered Portland Bill (crumbs, have we had some storms in the UK this winter!) for a different ambience altogether.

You can see my new toy in the picture – an iPad – mainly bought so that I could work on the patterns on the beach!!!

So, at one point I was 4, 410 miles from home, on the beach, listening to English radio live on the iPad, whilst reading a Thomas Hardy novel downloaded for free onto the iPad and knitting wigs – surreal?

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This blog had been a bit quiet recently due to a little bit of hibernation followed by a self styled knitting retreat in Abu Dhabi – oh boy was it WONDERFUL to get some sun on my bones this winter:

My favourite knitting spot

Just soak up those sunny warm peaceful rays!!!!

I went for a fortnight – Now how much yarn would you pack for 14 days of virtually uninterrupted knitting

Of course I took far too much and hoped the airline would not Xray my case to see a severed head and umpteen dodgy looking balls of something.

I went to stay with my brother-in-law who is working in Abu Dhabi. He was at work all day and I had the place to myself to work on my Hat Wig designs.

I thought I was taking so long to get new ones finished because I have so many other calls on my time at home, and a fortnight away would see a batch of new patterns ready to put in the Etsy Shop and on Ravelry. It turns out it just does take me AGES to finish writing a pattern. Ideas, creating designs, knitting new creations – easy, but actually getting them down on paper for others to follow – that is HARD work. If anyone has any tips or computer programmes that can help PLEASE let me know!!!

I like to add photos to the patterns to make them easy to follow

and that does take time of course, but it is the methodical, ordered, organised careful writing of knitting patterns that my grasshopper mind resists.

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Stormy weather leading up to Christmas with lashings of wind and rain, fallen tress, power cuts and flooded roads … would we all be able to gather together as planned?Thankfully things calmed and on Christmas Eve my son, daughter-in-law, their twins and 3 year old were able to get here from London. They set off at 5am to be sure of missing further bad weather.

With 8 grandchildren under 7, and the babies now all toddling around, I had the (brilliant!) idea of hiring the village hall for a few hours where we all gathered for tea and the kids were able to race around and all play together without wrecking anyone’s house!

We had a great time, and Christmas Day passed without any fights over toys – a minor miracle – hope your Christams Day was all you wished it to be.

Everyone safely back in their own homes, then more storms and rain. AND we are forecast with more gale force winds again tonight.

– from now on the days get longer, the light returns. I am feeling such a sense of celebration and wonder – of the seasons turning in continuous motion – beautifully and symbolically represented in the ‘Never Ending Card’.

A Magical new discovery courtesy of my You Tube feed – find a tutorial and demo here .

I was looking for a break from yarn based activities and along comes a little bit of simple magic just in time to make a birthday card for a very dear friend

you just keep turning and folding the card and more patterns and appear – like magic!

I am in the delicious grip of another obsession right now. AND I have felt a low level of inner critic muttering away at me, saying that these obsessions are somehow wrong – like an addiction and should be avoided or at least kept under control. Where has that inner critic come from? Was it school? Or was it in my childhood? Being the eldest of 4, I was expected to help, not sit in my room all day reading or drawing – getting lost in a story or the endless variations one could create with a Spirograph – my most treasured Christmas present, and first experience of a creative obsession.

My friend likes all things white (or cream) – her house is a sunlit haven of whiteness – she also loves cuteness. We sometimes give each other silly presents at Christmas, so …. could I knit a couple of little pigs to join her Rose Swann collection …..

My toes curl at the horrendous commercialisation of the Winter Holidays and as I knitted the 8th little pig – I was trying to get the pattern right – I had the idea to give each of my 8 grandchildren (aged 1 – 6) a little white pig for Christmas. My thought is that as the years go by, I will make the same thing for each of the 8, every Christmas. This will link them together, link them to me and link each year. I hope to take a picture of them all together with the gifts so there is a record all those weird presents Granny gave them!

Because I am lucky enough to have so many grandchildren, each item will have to be quite small and quick to make – little white pigs fit the bill – (well we are a farming family, does that make it any less weird, probably not!).

The validity of this obsession grows as the next little pig lines up on the table. As I subtly adjust the pattern, each pig is subtly different, it has its own little character.

He makes thousands and thousands of simple straight sided porcelain pots – mainly in white. It might seem a bit ridiculous to relate little knitted pigs to de Waal’s pots but the creative process is definitely related. I feel a kinship in the creative process – hurray!!! Repetition allows for a meditative atmosphere to develop, and in that rich ground other ideas creep in and grow and become – well poetic and meaningful and to me, beautiful!

Have I gone too far!!?? No! we creatives must celebrate the process and enjoy the fact that other people think we are crazy!

“He who can not hear the music, thinks the dancer is mad”

If you too would like to make some cute little pigs, I’ve put the pattern, with photos to help along the way, in my Etsy shop. £1 for an instant download PDF. (I’d love to see some pictures if you make one)

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Ravelry.com is an amazing source of all things knitting and crochet. You can find all manner of patterns on the site for free and to buy. I have a few patterns for sale on Ravelry and Etsy – and gosh it takes so much work to put a pattern together! I am working on several at the moment and they take SO much longer to get right than I ever imagined. Knitting and designing is the easy part – getting the pattern in a form that others can follow is another thing altogether.

I found a great pattern for a crocheted Hoodie on Ravelry. It didn’t work out quite as I wanted it and so I have adapted it and am offering it for free:

Click on this ‘Woodland Hoodie’ link for an instant free pdf of my version of the pattern:

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I met up with some old school friends for a nostalgic wander down memory lane, a walk in the wilds of West Dorset and a delicious pub lunch at The Three Horseshoes, Powerstock.

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we came across some acorn art

a voluptuous oak tree

deep wooded valleys

and walked a disused railway line

the smell of autumn in the air

West Dorset has a feeling of the land that time forgot and it is where my paternal ancestors come from. I most probably share DNA with the Iron Age inhabitants of the nearby Pilsdon Pen – a cosy, rooted feeling.at the end of the walk the sun tried to squeeze through

I LOVE making all these wonderful creative connections across the world. During your visit to this blog, it would be fabulous if you would be able to take the time to put yourself on our Map. It is fun to see where everyone comes from.

Here are the cards I have sent this year – all made from A1 size collages cut to post card size and further embellished with doodles, paint and washi tape.

It was my birthday on Monday! I had SUCH a wonderful time. Friends and family gathered for a disco in the village hall – just like the ’70s. And I danced all night to all the old favourites – PERFECT!!!

My son made a wonderful speech and we had a couple of brilliant jives together. My daughter did a STELLAR job of welcoming everyone with a drink and then persuading even the most reluctant ones onto the dance floor. And a dear friend made a lemon drizzle cake sparkling with edible glitter and champagne-bottle-shaped candles.

There are no photos of the party as it is usually me who takes them – and then, often, I seem to only experience gatherings with a photographers eye, looking for nice shots of people and things – I decided I just wanted to party and don’t regret it one bit – I’m loving all the images of crazy dancing and laughing friends that are in my memory bank of smiling happy faces.

So I am including pics of some of the lovely cards and presents I was given (the camellias above centre, painted by my friend Anne, who gave me the card)

One of my sisters had JUST (supreme effort to make it to the party) returned from Abu Dhabi and brought back this AMAZING presentation box of the MOST glorious selection of dickered-up dates (I LURVE dates!!!)

the photo doesn’t really do them justice – they are amaZING!!!!!

Heaven in a box……

……and the box is fabulous with a magnetic clasp – just right for storing knitting needles in me thinks.

The ‘put on your dancing shoes and party’ card was from my other sister who sadly couldn’t make it to the party as she is head down studying for a degree in Homeopathy – so Monday night not a good one when she lives 3 hours away.

Quite a few notepads came my way – which is great because I need them all over the place so that I remember moments of inspiration AND tasks I need to complete – if I don’t write them down, I’ll never remember anything – my contemporaries obviously understand this!! I’m particularly intrigued by the ‘mousepad notepad’ lots of gorgeous patterns to be recycled as collage material once they’ve served as mousepad AND notepad – ingenious. Designer: Amy Butler

people do have such amazing ideas.

And I can highly recommend the CD, Kenosis, made by a friend and neighbour…

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Still following the black and white doodle theme (it’s not out of my system yet) I have started on fabric – one metre of unbleached calico

This was the result of a day with my housebound 85 year old Mum. In the afternoon, we sat and watched an old black and white film ‘Shall We Dance’, starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers made in 1937, perfect to doodle to!

Next day I wasn’t feeling so good, so I spent a blissful Sunday doodling in bed and watched Jane Eyre with Samantha Morton, made in 1997.

It was fun to hear that my sister, Caroline, was also doodling to Jane Eyre and completed this A3 sheet!

She’s definitely caught the bug too.

There is something SO absorbing and relaxing about just creating patterns that grow and develop without much effort or planning – they have a life of their own.

where we went for a wonderful paddle one evening when the sun came out after a grey and rainy day.

Looking at the white lichen on the black rock inspired these doodles

and now I’m thinking of adding some gold and silver – hmm – Christmas cards maybe?

The black and white theme continues with my Cruella Deville Hat Wig selling this week and now speeding it’s way off to be worn for a Halloween Party – must knit another quickly – luckily it only takes a total of 4.5 hours to complete a Hat Wig – a couple of evenings and it’ll be done.

You can find a pattern in my Etsy Shop if you too would like to be Cruella.

Now I’ve started on the black and white theme I just want to keep on going and my very talented creative sister, who does exquisite detailed work, has got the bug too – she sent me this work in progress

I love the way we all take a theme and work it in our own unique way. Her work is very soothing to look at – I love the repetitions.

One of the conditions for Jude joining me on the trip was that on the Tuesday night, we would go to Tony’s Bingo at the Harbour Inn, which is right next door to Felingog.

I first time I went to Tony’s Bingo was with my sister and her son, when he was about 15 and we loved it, so it has become a bit of a tradition on trips to Solva.

Jude was not too sure!! But the evening – although it doesn’t start til way after the publicised time of 9pm, was really good fun, with loads of local fun and banter – “At the end of your foot – 8 – 0……. (a toe) 80”

There is something wonderful about being away from home and sitting in a cafe with knitting or crochet that feels SO good – delightful conversations strike up and meander around all things creative – cafe crochet – can’t beat it. Know what I mean?

The cafe is also a gallery for local artists and the tablecloths provided doodle inspirationwe checked out the cottage to let for future reference.

and then out into the mild grey drizzly day and back to the smallest city in Britain, St.Davids.

Like this:

On our second day in Pembrokeshire, we set off on a drive to visit the little coves and beaches south of Solva. First stop Newgale, where Jude and I had spent many happy summer teenage days with my Grandparents. The sun was not shining but that took nothing away from our enjoyment of wandering along looking in rock pools

intriguing little worlds of their own

and reminiscing.

We asked a group of walkers striding by to take a photo before going for a paddle

My felt project bag included in the picture to add a bit of ‘sunshine’!

I love it – it was made by a Nepalese women’s collective and I bought it from a stall at the Axminster Plant and Garden Show some years ago (now called the Axe Vale Festival) .

Next stop Marloes – I remembered going to Marloes as a child and we set off to find it.

We found the village, with a delightful pub in it opposite a children’s playground (note for future visits with the grandchildren), The Lobster Pot. Unfortunately it was the manager’s day off so the kitchen was not open for lunch.

We climbed down to where the ferry leaves for Skomer Island. Another thing to do on another trip (about a 40min drive from Solva, down some very wiggly narrow lanes).

We never did find the beach of my memories, but a bit of searching on the net when we got back and we found Marloes Sands, just a short distance from where we were as the crow flies but apparently a long walk from the car park. Looks worth it though, another place on the to go list for next time.

This time I am here with my dear old friend, Jude. We came here together as children, and stayed with my Welsh Grandparents, it is wonderful to go down memory lane as well as discovering new places together.

Jude drove us here and I discovered that I can crochet in the car! This is THRILLING!!!

Yes thrilling!! I know ….. yes, Jude laughed too!!! if you are not a knitting and crochet addict like me you won’t understand but for those of you who are – these discoveries are, well, thrilling!!!

Anyway I did masses of a new design I am working out, for an elfin tabard for my 6 year old granddaughter, on our 5 and a half hour journey. And arrived to the usual warm welcome at Felingog.

Then a walk along the beach:

I just can’t get enough of the shapes, angles and designs around each corner

And the colours and textures of the rocks, weeds and lichens – everything looks beautiful, interesting and like a painting or embroidery waiting to happen

Like this:

The wonderfully relaxing art of collage …. there is nothing I find more relaxing than spending a couple of hours leafing through magazine pictures gathering pictures for a paper collage

I seem to take ages doing it as I go into a sort of trance, so I wondered how much could be achieved in our workshop as we only had just over an hour after our mandala painting – I was amazed …….

Jill was delighted to find this ‘creative thinking’ piece for her collage

Pat chose a wedding theme

I can’t remember if this was themed by subject, but I love the colours Joan put together, and the touch of paint added to bring the whole together

Pat’s had an Indian feel, and used flyers of events that had happened, or were about to, in the Village Hall

and here is Sue’s festive feast!

What a BRILLIANT time we had!

It was great to be with such an enthusiastic group – up for trying all the diverse crafty ideas I threw in front of them – AND they plan to continue to meet to have time to pursue some of the techniques over a longer period of time – HAVE FUN you wonderful women! I’m sure you will!

And a BIG thank you goes out to Pat for getting us all together – thanks Pat.